OFDM communication system with multiple OFDM symbol sizes

ABSTRACT

Techniques to use OFDM symbols of different sizes to achieve greater efficiency for OFDM systems. The system traffic may be arranged into different categories (e.g., control data, user data, and pilot data). For each category, one or more OFDM symbols of the proper sizes may be selected for use based on the expected payload size for the traffic in that category. For example, control data may be transmitted using OFDM symbols of a first size, user data may be transmitted using OFDM symbols of the first size and a second size, and pilot data may be transmitted using OFDM symbols of a third size or the first size. In one exemplary design, a small OFDM symbol is utilized for pilot and for transport channels used to send control data, and a large OFDM symbol and the small OFDM symbol are utilized for transport channels used to send user data.

[0001] This application claims the benefit of provisional U.S. Application Serial No. 60/421,309, entitled “MIMO WLAN System,” filed on Oct. 25, 2002, and provisional U.S. Application Serial No. 60/438,601, entitled “Pilot Transmission Schemes for Wireless Multi-Carrier Communication Systems,” filed on Jan. 7, 2003, both assigned to the assignee of the present application and incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

[0002] I. Field

[0003] The present invention relates generally to data communication, and more specifically to orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication systems and techniques for providing OFDM symbol sizes to increase wireless efficiency.

[0004] II. Background

[0005] Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication services such as voice, packet data, and so on. These systems may utilize OFDM, which is a modulation technique capable of providing high performance for some wireless environments. OFDM effectively partitions the overall system bandwidth into a number of (N_(S)) orthogonal subbands, which are also commonly referred to as tones, bins, and frequency subchannels. With OFDM, each subband is associated with a respective carrier that may be modulated with data.

[0006] In OFDM, a stream of information bits is converted to a series of frequency-domain modulation symbols. One modulation symbol may be transmitted on each of the N_(S) subbands in each OFDM symbol period (defined below). The modulation symbols to be transmitted on the N_(S) subbands in each OFDM symbol period are transformed to the time-domain using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to obtain a “transformed” symbol that contains N_(S) samples. The input to an N_(S)-point IFFT is N_(S) frequency-domain values and the output from the IFFT is N_(S) time-domain samples. The number of subbands is determined by the size of the IFFT. Increasing the size of the IFFT increases the number of subbands and also increases the number of samples for each transformed symbol, which correspondingly increases the time required to transmit the symbol.

[0007] To combat frequency selective fading in the wireless channel used for data transmission (described below), a portion of each transformed symbol is typically repeated prior to transmission. The repeated portion is often referred to as a cyclic prefix, and has a length of N_(CP) samples. The length of the cyclic prefix is typically selected based on the delay spread of the system, as described below, and is independent of the length of the transformed symbol. An OFDM symbol is composed of a transformed symbol and its cyclic prefix. Each OFDM symbol contains N_(S)+N_(cp) samples and has a duration of N_(S)+N_(cp) sample periods, which is one OFDM symbol period.

[0008] The size of the cyclic prefix relative to that of the OFDM symbol may have a large impact on the efficiency of an OFDM system. The cyclic prefix must be transmitted with each OFDM symbol to simplify the receiver processing in a multipath environment but carries no additional information. The cyclic prefix may be viewed as bandwidth that must be wasted as a price of operating in the multipath environment. The proportion of bandwidth wasted in this way can be computed using the formula $\frac{N_{cp}}{N_{S} + N_{cp}}.$

[0009] For example, if N_(cp) is 16 samples and N_(S) is 64 samples, then 20% of the bandwidth is lost to cyclic prefix overhead. This percentage may be decreased by using a relatively large value of N_(S). Unfortunately, using a large value of N_(S) can also lead to inefficiency, especially where the size of the information unit or packet to be transmitted is much smaller than the capacity of the OFDM symbol. For example, if each OFDM symbol can carry 480 information bits, but the most common packet contains 96 bits, then packing efficiency will be poor and much of the capacity of the OFDM symbol will be wasted when this common packet is sent.

[0010] Orthogonal frequency division multiple-access (OFDMA) can ameliorate the inefficiency due to excess capacity resulting from the use of a large OFDM symbol. For OFDMA, multiple users share the large OFDM symbol using frequency domain multiplexing. This is achieved by reserving a set of subbands for signaling and allocating different disjoint sets of subbands to different users. However, data transmission using OFDMA may be complicated by various factors such as, for example, different power requirements, propagation delays, Doppler frequency shifts, and/or timing for different users sharing the large OFDM symbol.

[0011] Existing OFDM systems typically select a single OFDM symbol size that is a compromise of various objectives, which may include minimizing cyclic prefix overhead and maximizing packing efficiency. The use of this single OFDM symbol size results in inefficiency due to excess capacity when transmitting packets of varying sizes. There is therefore a need in the art for an OFDM system that operates efficiently when transmitting packets of varying sizes.

SUMMARY

[0012] Techniques are provided herein to use OFDM symbols of different sizes to achieve greater efficiency for OFDM systems. These techniques can address both objectives of minimizing cyclic prefix overhead and maximizing packing efficiency. The OFDM symbol sizes may be selected based on the expected sizes of the different types of payload to be transmitted in an OFDM system. The system traffic may be arranged into different categories. For each category, one or more OFDM symbols of the proper sizes may be selected for use based on the expected payload size for the traffic in that category.

[0013] For example, the system traffic may be arranged into control data, user data, and pilot data. Control data may be transmitted using an OFDM symbol of a first size, user data may be transmitted using an OFDM symbol of a second size and the OFDM symbol of the first size, and pilot data may be transmitted using an OFDM symbol of a third size (or the first size). The user data may further be arranged into sub-categories such as, for example, voice data, packet data, messaging data, and so on. A particular OFDM symbol size may then be selected for each sub-category of user data. Alternatively or additionally, the data for each user may be transmitted using an OFDM symbol of a particular size selected for that user. For improved packing efficiency, OFDM symbols of different sizes may be used for a given user data packet to better match the capacity of the OFDM symbols to the packet payload.

[0014] In general, any number of OFDM symbol sizes may be used for an OFDM system, and any particular OFDM symbol size may be selected for use. In one illustrative design, a combination of two OFDM symbol sizes are used so as to maximize packing efficiency. In the illustrative design, a small or short OFDM symbol size (e.g., with 64 subbands) is used for pilot and control data. User data may be sent within zero or more OFDM symbols having a large or long OFDM symbol size (e.g., with 256 subbands) and zero or more OFDM symbols having the small OFDM symbol size, depending on the payload size.

[0015] The processing at a transmitter and receiver (e.g., encoding, interleaving, symbol mapping, and spatial processing) may be performed in a manner to account for the use of OFDM symbols of different sizes, as described below. Various aspects and embodiments of the invention are also described in further detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] The features, nature, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which like reference characters identify correspondingly throughout and wherein:

[0017]FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an OFDM modulator;

[0018]FIG. 2 shows OFDM symbols of different sizes and the overhead due to the cyclic prefix;

[0019]FIGS. 3A and 3B show the use of OFDM symbols of different sizes to transmit different types of data;

[0020]FIG. 4 shows an IFFT unit with S stages for generating OFDM symbols of different sizes;

[0021]FIG. 5 shows an illustrative MIMO-OFDM system;

[0022]FIG. 6 shows a frame structure for a TDD MIMO-OFDM system;

[0023]FIG. 7 shows a structure for a data packet and a PHY frame;

[0024]FIG. 8 shows a block diagram of an access point and two user terminals;

[0025]FIG. 9A shows a block diagram of a transmitter unit that may be used for the access point and the user terminal; and

[0026]FIG. 9B shows a block diagram of a modulator within the transmitter unit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs.

[0028]FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an OFDM modulator 100 that may be used in an OFDM system. The data to be transmitted (i.e., the information bits) is typically first encoded in an encoder (not shown) using a particular coding scheme to generate code bits. For example, the encoder (not shown) may utilize a forward error correction (FEC) code such as a block code, convolutional code, or turbo code. The code bits are then grouped into B-bit binary values, where B≧1. Each B-bit value is then mapped to a specific modulation symbol based on a particular modulation scheme (e.g., M-PSK or M-QAM, where M=2^(B)). Each modulation symbol is a complex value in a signal constellation corresponding to the modulation scheme used for that modulation symbol.

[0029] For each OFDM symbol period, one modulation symbol may be transmitted on each subband used for data transmission, and a signal value of zero is provided for each unused subband. An inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) unit 110 transforms the N_(S) modulation symbols and zeros for all N_(S) subbands in each OFDM symbol period to the time domain using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT), to obtain a transformed symbol that comprises N_(S) samples.

[0030] A cyclic prefix generator 120 then repeats a portion of each transformed symbol to obtain a corresponding OFDM symbol that comprises N_(S)+N_(cp) samples. The cyclic prefix is used to combat frequency selective fading (i.e., a frequency response that varies across the overall system bandwidth), which is caused by delay spread in the system. The delay spread for a transmitter is the difference between the earliest and latest arriving signal instances at a receiver for a signal transmitted by that transmitter. The delay spread of the system is the expected worst-case delay spread for all transmitters and receivers in the system. The frequency selective fading causes inter-symbol interference (ISI), which is a phenomenon whereby each symbol in a received signal acts as distortion to subsequent symbols in the received signal. The ISI distortion degrades performance by impacting the ability to correctly detect the received symbols. To effectively combat ISI, the length of the cyclic prefix is typically selected based on the delay spread of the system such that the cyclic prefix contains a significant portion of all multipath energies. The cyclic prefix represents a fixed overhead of N_(cp) samples for each OFDM symbol.

[0031]FIG. 2 illustrates OFDM symbols of different sizes including the fixed overhead due to the cyclic prefix. For a given system bandwidth of W MHz, the size or duration of an OFDM symbol is dependent on the number of subbands. If the system bandwidth is divided into N subbands with the use of an N-point IFFT, then the resulting transformed symbol comprises N samples and spans N sample periods or N/W μsec. As shown in FIG. 2, the system bandwidth may also be divided into 2N subbands with the use of a 2N-point IFFT. In this case, the resulting transformed symbol would comprise 2N samples, span 2N sample periods, and have approximately twice the data-carrying capacity of the transformed symbol with N samples. Similarly, FIG. 2 also shows how the system bandwidth may be divided into 4N subbands with the use of a 4N-point IFFT. The resulting transformed symbol would then comprise 4N samples and have approximately four times the data-carrying capacity of the transformed symbol with N samples.

[0032] As illustrated in FIG. 2, since the cyclic prefix is a fixed overhead, it becomes a smaller percentage of the OFDM symbol as the symbol size increases. Viewed another way, only one cyclic prefix is needed for the transformed symbol of size 4N, whereas four cyclic prefixes are needed for the equivalent four transformed symbols of size N. The amount of overhead for the cyclic prefixes may then be reduced by 75% by the use of the large OFDM symbol of size 4N. (The terms “large” and “long” are used interchangeably herein for OFDM symbols, and the terms “small” and “short” are also used interchangeably.) FIG. 2 indicates that improved efficiency (from the cyclic prefix standpoint) may be attained by using an OFDM symbol with the largest size possible. The largest OFDM symbol that may be used is typically constrained by the coherence time of the wireless channel, which is the time over which the wireless channel is essentially constant.

[0033] The use of the largest possible OFDM symbol may be inefficient from other standpoints. In particular, if the data-carrying capacity of the OFDM symbol is much greater than the size of the payload to be sent, then the remaining excess capacity of the OFDM symbol will go unused. This excess capacity of the OFDM symbol represents inefficiency. If the OFDM symbol is too large, then the inefficiency due to excess-capacity may be greater than the inefficiency due to the cyclic prefix.

[0034] In an illustrative OFDM system, both types of inefficiency are minimized by using OFDM symbols of different sizes. The OFDM symbol sizes used to transmit a unit of data may be selected from a set of available OFDM symbol sizes, which may in turn be selected based on the expected sizes of the different types of payload to be transmitted in the OFDM system. The system traffic may be arranged into different categories. For each category, one or more OFDM symbols of the proper sizes may be selected for use based on the expected payload size for the traffic in that category and possibly other considerations (e.g., implementation complexity). An OFDM symbol may be viewed as a boxcar that is used to send data. One or more boxcars of the proper sizes may be selected for each category of data depending on the amount of data expected to be sent for that category. A unit of data may be sent using multiple boxcars having identical sizes or having varying sizes. For example, if a unit of data consumes 2.1 times the capacity of a “large” boxcar, then the unit of data may be sent using two “large” boxcars and one “small” boxcar.

[0035] As an example, the system traffic may be divided into three basic categories—control data, user data, and pilot data. Control data typically constitutes a small fraction (e.g., less than 10%) of the total system traffic and is usually sent in smaller blocks. User data constitutes the bulk of the system traffic. To minimize cyclic prefix overhead and maximize packing efficiency, a short OFDM symbol may be used to send control data and pilot, and a combination of long OFDM symbols and short OFDM symbols may be used to send user data.

[0036]FIG. 3A shows the use of OFDM symbols of different sizes to transmit different types of data in an OFDM system. For simplicity, only one OFDM symbol size is used for each category and type of data in FIG. 3A. In general, any number of OFDM symbol sizes may be used for each category and type of data.

[0037] As shown in FIG. 3A, pilot data may be transmitted using an OFDM symbol of size N_(Sa), control data may be transmitted using an OFDM symbol of size N_(Sb), and different types of user data (or data for different users) may be transmitted using OFDM symbols of sizes N_(Sc) through N_(Sq). The user data may be further arranged into sub-categories such as, for example, voice data, packet data, messaging data, and so on. A suitable OFDM symbol size may then be selected for each sub-category of user data. Alternatively, the data for each user may be transmitted using an OFDM symbol of a suitable size for that user. The OFDM symbol size for a particular user may be selected based on various considerations such as, for example, the amount of data to transmit, the coherence time of the wireless channel for the user, and so on.

[0038] In general, any number of OFDM symbol sizes may be used for the OFDM system, and any particular OFDM symbol size may be selected for use. Typically, the minimum OFDM symbol size is dictated by the cyclic prefix overhead and the maximum OFDM symbol size is dictated by the coherence time of the wireless channel. For practical considerations, OFDM symbol sizes that are powers of two (e.g., 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, and so on) are normally selected for use because of the ease in transforming between the time and frequency domains with the IFFT and fast Fourier Transform (FFT) operations.

[0039]FIG. 3A shows the transmission of different types of data in different time segments in a time division multiplexed (TDM) manner. Each frame (which is of a particular time duration) is partitioned into multiple time segments. Each time segment may be used to transmit data of a particular type. The different types of data may also be transmitted in other manners, and this is within the scope of the invention. For example, the pilot and control data may be transmitted on different sets of subbands in the same time segment. As another example, all user data may be transmitted in one time segment for each frame.

[0040] For a TDM frame structure, such as the one shown in FIG. 3A, the particular OFDM symbol size to use for each time segment may be determined by various manners. In one embodiment, the OFDM symbol size to use for each time segment is fixed and known a priori by both the transmitters and receivers in the OFDM system. In another embodiment, the OFDM symbol size for each time segment may be configurable and indicated, for example, by signaling sent for each frame. In yet another embodiment, the OFDM symbol sizes for some time segments (e.g., for the pilot and control data) may be fixed and the OFDM symbol sizes for other time segments (e.g., for the user data) may be configurable. In the latter configuration, the transmitter may use the fixed-symbol-size control data channel to transmit the OFDM symbol sizes to be used in subsequent user-data OFDM symbols.

[0041]FIG. 3B shows the use of two different OFDM symbol sizes of N and 4N for different types of data. In this embodiment, each frame is partitioned into three time segments for pilot, control data, and user data. Pilot and control data are transmitted using an OFDM symbol of size N, and user data is transmitted using an OFDM symbol of size 4N and the OFDM symbol of size N. One or multiple OFDM symbols of size N may be transmitted for each of the time segments for pilot and control data. Zero or multiple OFDM symbols of size 4N and zero or multiple OFDM symbols of size N may be transmitted for the time segment for user data.

[0042]FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of a variable-size IFFT unit 400 capable of generating OFDM symbols of different sizes. IFFT unit 400 includes S stages, where S=log₂N_(max) and N_(max) is the size of the largest OFDM symbol to be generated. The modulation symbols for each OFDM symbol period are provided to a zero insertion and sorting unit 410, which sorts the modulation symbols, for example in bit-reversed order, and inserts an appropriate number of zeros when a smaller OFDM symbol is being generated. Unit 410 provides N_(max) sorted modulation symbols and zeros to a first butterfly stage 420 a, which performs a set of butterfly computations for 2-point inverse discrete Fourier transforms (DFTs). The outputs from first butterfly stage 420 a are then processed by each of subsequent butterfly stages 420 b through 420 s. Each butterfly stage 420 performs a set of butterfly operations with a set of coefficients applicable for that stage, as is known in the art.

[0043] The outputs from last butterfly stage 420 s are provided to a selector unit 430, which provides the time-domain samples for each OFDM symbol. To perform an N_(max)-point IFFT, all butterfly stages are enabled and N_(max) samples are provided by selector unit 430. To perform an N_(max)/2-point IFFT, all but the last butterfly stage 420 s are enabled and N_(max)/2 samples are provided by selector unit 430. To perform an N_(max)/4-point IFFT, all but the last two butterfly stages 420 r and 420 s are enabled and N_(max)/4 samples are provided by selector unit 430. A control unit 440 receives an indication of the particular OFDM symbol size to use for the current OFDM symbol period and provides the control signals for units 410 and 430 and butterfly stages 420.

[0044] IFFT unit 400 may implement a decimation-in-time or a decimation-in-frequency IFFT algorithm. Moreover, IFFT unit 400 may implement radix-4 or radix-2 IFFT, although radix-4 IFFT may be more efficient. IFFT unit 400 may be designed to include one or multiple butterfly computation units. At the extremes, one butterfly computation unit may be used for a time-shared IFFT implementation, and N_(max)/radix butterfly computation units may be used for a fully parallel IFFT implementation. Typically, the number of butterfly computation units required is determined by the clock speed for these units, the OFDM symbol rate, and the maximum IFFT size. Proper control of these butterfly computation units in conjunction with memory management allow IFFT of different sizes to be performed using a single IFFT unit.

[0045] As described above in FIG. 1, a cyclic prefix generator 120 repeats a portion of each transformed symbol output by selector unit 430 to provide a cyclic prefix for each OFDM symbol. The same cyclic prefix length may be used for OFDM symbols of different sizes and may be selected based on the delay spread of the system as described above. The cyclic prefix length may also be configurable. For example, the cyclic prefix length used for each receiver may be selected based on the delay spread of the receiver, which may be shorter than the delay spread of the system. The configured cyclic prefix length may be signaled to the receiver or made known to the receiver by some other means.

[0046] OFDM symbols of different sizes may be advantageously used in various types of OFDM systems. For example, multiple OFDM symbol sizes may be used for (1) single-input single-output OFDM systems that use a single antenna for transmission and reception, (2) multiple-input single-output OFDM systems that use multiple antennas for transmission and a single antenna for reception, (3) single-input multiple-output OFDM systems that use a single antenna for transmission and multiple antennas for reception, and (4) multiple-input multiple-output OFDM systems (i.e., MIMO-OFDM systems) that use multiple antennas for transmission and reception. Multiple OFDM symbol sizes may also be used for (1) frequency division duplexed (FDD) OFDM systems that use different frequency bands for the downlink and uplink, and (2) time division duplexed (TDD) OFDM systems that use one frequency band for both the downlink and uplink in a time-shared manner.

[0047] The use of OFDM symbols of different sizes in an exemplary TDD MIMO-OFDM system is described below.

I. TDD MIMO-OFDM System

[0048]FIG. 5 shows an exemplary MIMO-OFDM system 500 with a number of access points (APs) 510 that support communication for a number of user terminals (UTs) 520. For simplicity, only two access points 510 a and 510 b are shown in FIG. 5. An access point is a fixed station used for communicating with the user terminals and may also be referred to as a base station or some other terminology. A user terminal may also be referred to as an access terminal, a mobile station, a user equipment (UE), a wireless device, or some other terminology. User terminals 520 may be dispersed throughout the system. Each user terminal may be a fixed or mobile terminal and may communicate with one or possibly multiple access points on the downlink and/or uplink at any given moment. The downlink (i.e., forward link) refers to the communication link from the access point to the user terminal, and the uplink (i.e., reverse link) refers to the communication link from the user terminal to the access point.

[0049] In FIG. 5, access point 510 a communicates with user terminals 520 a through 520 f, and access point 510 b communicates with user terminals 520 f through 520 k. A system controller 530 couples to access points 510 and may be designed to perform a number of functions such as (1) coordination and control for the access points coupled to it, (2) routing of data among these access points, and (3) access and control of communication with the user terminals served by these access points.

[0050]FIG. 6 shows an exemplary frame structure 600 that may be used for MIMO-OFDM system 500. Data transmission occurs in units of TDD frames, each of which spans a particular time duration (e.g., 2 msec). Each TDD frame is partitioned into a downlink phase and an uplink phase, and each downlink or uplink phase is further partitioned into multiple segments for multiple transport channels. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the downlink transport channels include a broadcast channel (BCH), a forward control channel (FCCH), and a forward channel (FCH), and the uplink transport channels include a reverse channel (RCH) and a random access channel (RACH).

[0051] On the downlink, a BCH segment 610 is used to transmit one BCH protocol data unit (PDU) 612, which includes a portion 614 for a beacon pilot, a portion 616 for a MIMO pilot, and a portion 618 for a BCH message. The BCH message carries system parameters for the user terminals in the system. An FCCH segment 620 is used to transmit one FCCH PDU, which carries assignments for downlink and uplink resources and other signaling for the user terminals. An FCH segment 630 is used to transmit one or more FCH PDUs 632 on the downlink. Different types of FCH PDU may be defined. For example, an FCH PDU 632 a includes a portion 634 a for a pilot (e.g., a steered reference) and a portion 636 a for a data packet. The pilot portion is also referred to as a “preamble”. An FCH PDU 632 b includes a single portion 636 b for a data packet. The different types of pilots (beacon pilot, MIMO pilot, and steered reference) are described in the aforementioned provisional U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 60/421,309.

[0052] On the uplink, an RCH segment 640 is used to transmit one or more RCH PDUs 642 on the uplink. Different types of RCH PDU may also be defined. For example, an RCH PDU 642 a includes a single portion 646 a for a data packet. An RCH PDU 642 b includes a portion 644 b for a pilot (e.g., a steered reference) and a portion 646 b for a data packet. An RACH segment 650 is used by the user terminals to gain access to the system and to send short messages on the uplink. An RACH PDU 652 may be sent in RACH segment 650 and includes a portion 654 for a pilot (e.g., a steered reference) and a portion 656 for a message.

[0053] The durations of the portions and segments are not drawn to scale in FIG. 6. The frame structure and transport channels shown in FIG. 6 are described in detail in the aforementioned provisional U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 60/421,309.

[0054] Since different transport channels may be associated with different types of data, a suitable OFDM symbol size may be selected for use for each transport channel. If a large amount of data is expected to be transmitted on a given transport channel, then a large OFDM symbol may be used for that transport channel. The cyclic prefix would then represent a smaller percentage of the large OFDM symbol, and greater efficiency may be achieved. Conversely, if a small amount of data is expected to be transmitted on a given transport channel, than a small OFDM symbol may be used for that transport channel. Even though the cyclic prefix represents a larger percentage of the small OFDM symbol, greater efficiency may still be achieved by reducing the amount of excess capacity.

[0055] Thus, to attain higher efficiency, the OFDM symbol size for each transport channel may be selected to match the expected payload size for the type of data to be transmitted on that transport channel. Different OFDM symbol sizes may be used for different transport channels. Moreover, multiple OFDM symbol sizes may be used for a given transport channel. For example, each PDU type for the FCH and RCH may be associated with a suitable OFDM symbol size for that PDU type. A large OFDM symbol may be used for a large-size FCH/RCH PDU type, and a small OFDM symbol may be used for a small-size FCH/RCH PDU type.

[0056] For simplicity, an exemplary design is described below using a small OFDM symbol size N_(S1)=64 and a large OFDM symbol size N_(S2)=256. In this exemplary design, the BCH, FCCH, and RACH utilize the small OFDM symbol, and the FCH and RCH utilize both the small and large OFDM symbols as appropriate. Other OFDM symbol sizes may also be used for the transport channels, and this is within the scope of the invention. For example, a large OFDM symbol of size N_(S3)=128 may alternatively or additionally be used for the FCH and RCH.

[0057] For this exemplary design, the 64 subbands for the small OFDM symbol are assigned indices of −32 to +31. Of these 64 subbands, 48 subbands (e.g., with indices of ±{1, . . . , 6, 8, . . . , 20, 22, . . . , 26}) are used for data and are referred to as data subbands, 4 subbands (e.g., with indices of ±{7, 21}) are used for pilot and possibly signaling, the DC subband (with index of 0) is not used, and the remaining subbands are also not used and serve as guard subbands. This OFDM subband structure is described in the aforementioned provisional U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 60/421,309.

[0058] The 256 subbands for the large OFDM symbol are assigned indices of −128 to +127. The subbands for the small OFDM symbol may be mapped to the subbands for the large OFDM symbol based on the following:

l=4k+i   Eq(1)

[0059] where k is an index for the subbands in the short OFDM symbol (k=−32, . . . +31);

[0060] i is an index offset with a range of i=0, 1, 2, 3; and

[0061] l is an index for the subbands in the long OFDM symbol (l=−128, . . . +127).

[0062] For this exemplary design, the system bandwidth is W=20 MHz, the cyclic prefix is N_(cp1)=16 samples for the BCH, FCCH, and RACH, and the cyclic prefix is configurable as N_(cp2)=8 or 16 for the FCH and RCH. The small OFDM symbol used for the BCH, FCCH, and RACH would then have a size of N_(os1)=80 samples or 4.0 μsec. If N_(cp2)=16 is selected for use, then the large OFDM symbol used for the FCH and RCH would then have a size of N_(os2)2=272 samples or 13.6 μsec.

[0063] For this exemplary design, the BCH segment has a fixed duration of 80 μsec, and each of the remaining segments has a variable duration. For each TDD frame, the start of each PDU sent on the FCH and RCH relative to the start of the FCH and RCH segments and the start of the RACH segment relative to the start of the TDD frame are provided in the FCCH message sent in the FCCH segment. Different OFDM symbol sizes are associated with different symbol durations. Since different OFDM symbol sizes are used for different transport channels (and different OFDM symbol sizes may also be used for the same transport channel), the offsets for the FCH and RCH PDUs are specified with the proper time resolution. For the exemplary design described above, the time resolution may be the cyclic prefix length of 800 nsec. For a TDD frame of 2 msec, a 12-bit value may be used to indicate the start of each FCH/RCH PDU.

[0064]FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary structure for a data packet 636 x that may be sent in an FCH or RCH PDU on the FCH or RCH. The data packet is sent using an integer number of PHY frames 710. Each PHY frame 710 includes a payload field 722 that carries the data for the PHY frame, a CRC field 724 for a CRC value for the PHY frame, and a tail bit field 726 for a set of zeros used to flush out the encoder. The first PHY frame 710 a for the data packet further includes a header field 720, which indicates the message type and duration. The last PHY frame 710 m for the data packet further includes a pad bit field 728, which contains zero padding bits at the end of the payload in order to fill the last PHY frame. This PHY frame structure is described in further detail in the aforementioned provisional U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 60/421,309. If one antenna is used for data transmission, then each PHY frame 710 may be processed to obtain one OFDM symbol 750.

[0065] The same PHY frame structure may be used for a message sent on the BCH or FCCH. In particular, a BCH/FCCH message may be sent using an integer number of PHY frames, each of which may be processed to obtain one OFDM symbol. Multiple OFDM symbols may be transmitted for the BCH/FCCH message.

[0066] For the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, one PHY frame of data is sent in each OFDM symbol. Different PHY frame sizes may be used for different OFDM symbol sizes. Each PHY frame of data may be coded based on a particular coding scheme and may further include a CRC value that permits individual PHY frames to be checked and retransmitted if necessary. The number of information bits that may be sent in each PHY frame is dependent on the coding and modulation schemes selected for use for that PHY frame. Table 1 lists a set of rates that may be used for the MIMO-OFDM system and, for each rate, various parameters for two PHY frame sizes for two OFDM symbol sizes of N_(S1)=64 and N_(S2)=256. TABLE 1 Small Large PHY Frame PHY Frame Info Code Info Code Spectral bits/ bits/ bits/ bits/ Efficiency Code Modulation PHY PHY PHY PHY (bps/Hz) Rate Scheme frame frame frame frame 0.25 1/4 BPSK 12 48 48 192 0.5 1/2 BPSK 24 48 96 192 1.0 1/2 QPSK 48 96 192 384 1.5 3/4 QPSK 72 96 288 384 2.0 1/2 16 QAM 96 192 384 768 2.5 5/8 16 QAM 120 192 480 768 3.0 3/4 16 QAM 144 192 576 768 3.5  7/12 64 QAM 168 288 672 1152 4.0 2/3 64 QAM 192 288 768 1152 4.5 3/4 64 QAM 216 288 864 1152 5.0 5/6 64 QAM 240 288 960 1152 5.5 11/16 256 QAM 264 384 1056 1536 6.0 3/4 256 QAM 288 384 1152 1536 6.5 13/16 256 QAM 312 384 1248 1536 7.0 7/8 256 QAM 336 384 1344 1536

[0067] For the exemplary design described above, the small PHY frame and small OFDM symbol are used for the BCH and FCCH. Both small and large PHY frames and small and large OFDM symbols may be used for the FCH and RCH. In general, a data packet may be sent using any number of large OFDM symbols and a small number of small OFDM symbols. If the large OFDM symbol is four times the size of the small OFDM symbol, then a data packet may be sent using N_(L) large OFDM symbols and N_(SM) small OFDM symbols (where N_(L)≧0 and 3≧N_(SM)≧0). The N_(SM) small OFDM symbols at the end of the N_(L) large OFDM symbols reduce the amount of unused capacity. OFDM symbols of different sizes may thus be used to better match the capacity of the OFDM symbols to the packet payload to maximize packing efficiency.

[0068] The OFDM symbol sizes used for data transmission may be provided to a receiver in various manners. In one embodiment, the FCCH provides the start of each data packet transmitted on the FCH and RCH and the rate of the packet. Some other equivalent information may also be signaled to the receiver. The receiver is then able to determine the size of each data packet being sent, the number of long and short OFDM symbols used for that data packet, and the start of each OFDM symbol. This information is then used by the receiver to determine the size of the FFT to be performed for each received OFDM symbol and to properly align the timing of the FFT. In another embodiment, the start of each data packet and its rate are not signaled to the receiver. In this case, “blind” detection may be used, and the receiver can perform an FFT for every 16 samples (i.e., the cyclic prefix length) and determine whether or not a PHY frame was sent by checking the CRC value included in the PHY frame.

[0069] For a given pairing of access point and user terminal in MIMO-OFDM system 500, a MIMO channel is formed by the N_(ap) antennas at the access point and the N_(ut) antennas at the user terminal. The MIMO channel may be decomposed into N_(C) independent channels, with N_(C)≦min {N_(ap), N_(ut)}. Each of the N_(C) independent channels is also referred to as an eigenmode of the MIMO channel, where “eigenmode” normally refers to a theoretical construct. Up to N_(C) independent data streams may be sent concurrently the N_(C) eigenmodes of the MIMO channel. The MIMO channel may also be viewed as including N_(C) spatial channels that may be used for data transmission. Each spatial channel may or may not correspond to an eigenmode, depending on whether or not the spatial processing at the transmitter was successful in orthogonalizing the data streams.

[0070] The MIMO-OFDM system may be designed to support a number of transmission modes. Table 2 lists the transmission modes that may be used for the downlink and uplink for a user terminal equipped with multiple antennas. TABLE 2 Transmission modes Description Diversity Data is redundantly transmitted from multiple transmit antennas and subbands to provide diversity. Beam-steering Data is transmitted on a single (best) spatial channel at full power using the phase steering information based on the principal eigenmode of the MIMO channel. Spatial multiplexing Data is transmitted on multiple spatial channels to achieve higher spectral efficiency.

[0071] For the beam-steering mode, one PHY frame of a selected rate may be generated for each OFDM symbol period for transmission on the best spatial channel. This PHY frame is initially processed to obtain a set of modulation symbols, which is then spatially processed to obtain N_(T) sets of transmit symbols for N_(T) transmit antennas. The set of transmit symbols for each antenna is further processed to obtain an OFDM symbol for that antenna.

[0072] For the spatial multiplexing mode, up to N_(C) PHY frames of the same or different rates may be generated for each OFDM symbol period for transmission on the N_(C) spatial channels. The up to N_(C) PHY frames are initially processed to obtain up to N_(C) sets of modulation symbols, which are then spatially processed to obtain N_(T) sets of transmit symbols for N_(T) transmit antennas. The set of transmit symbols for each antenna is further processed to obtain an OFDM symbol for that antenna.

[0073] The processing at the transmitter and receiver for the beam-steering and spatial multiplexing modes are described in detail in the aforementioned provisional U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 60/421,309. The spatial processing for the beam-steering and spatial multiplexing modes is essentially the same for both the short and long OFDM symbols, albeit with more subbands for the long OFDM symbol. The diversity mode is described below.

[0074] In an embodiment, the diversity mode utilizes space-time transmit diversity (STTD) for dual transmit diversity on a per-subband basis. STTD supports simultaneous transmission of independent symbol streams on two transmit antennas while maintaining orthogonality at the receiver.

[0075] The STTD scheme operates as follows. Suppose that two modulation symbols, denoted as s₁ and s₂, are to be transmitted on a given subband. The transmitter generates two vectors or STTD symbols, x₁=[s₁ s₂*]^(T) and x₂=[s₂−S₁*]^(T), where each STTD symbol includes two elements, “*” denotes the complex conjugate, and “^(T)” denotes the transpose. Alternatively, the transmitter may generate two STTD symbols, x₁=[s₁ s₂]^(T) and x₂=[−s₂* s₁*]^(T). In any case, the two elements in each STTD symbol are typically transmitted sequentially in two OFDM symbol periods from a respective transmit antenna (i.e., STTD symbol x₁ is transmitted from antenna 1 in two OFDM symbol periods, and STTD symbol x₂ is transmitted from antenna 2 in the same two OFDM symbol periods). The duration of each STTD symbol is thus two OFDM symbol periods.

[0076] It is desirable to minimize the processing delay and buffering associated with STTD processing for the large OFDM symbol. In an embodiment, the two STTD symbols x₁ and x₂ are transmitted concurrently on a pair of subbands from two antennas. For the two STTD symbols x₁=[s₁ s₂]^(T) and x₂=[−s₂* s₁*]^(T), the two elements s₁ and s₂ for the STTD symbol x₁ may be transmitted on subband k from two antennas, and the two elements −s₂* and s₁* for the STTD symbol x₂ may be transmitted on subband k+1 from the same two antennas.

[0077] If the transmitter includes multiple antennas, then different pairs of antennas may be selected for use for each data subband in the diversity mode. Table 3 lists an exemplary subband-antenna assignment scheme for the STTD scheme using four transmit antennas. TABLE 3 Short OFDM Subband TX Bit Indices Ant Index — — — −26 1, 2 0 −25 3, 4 6 −24 1, 3 12 −23 2, 4 18 −22 1, 4 24 −21 1 P0 −20 2, 3 30 −19 1, 2 36 −18 3, 4 42 −17 1, 3 2 −16 2, 4 8 −15 1, 4 14 −14 2, 3 20 −13 1, 2 26 −12 3, 4 32 −11 1, 3 38 −10 2, 4 44 −9 1, 4 4 −8 2, 3 10 −7 2 P1 −6 1, 2 16 −5 3, 4 22 −4 1, 3 28 −3 2, 4 34 −2 1, 4 40 −1 2, 3 46 0 1 3, 4 1 2 1, 2 7 3 2, 4 13 4 1, 3 19 5 2, 3 25 6 1, 4 31 7 3 P2 8 3, 4 37 9 1, 2 43 10 2, 4 3 11 1, 3 9 12 2, 3 15 13 1, 4 21 14 3, 4 27 15 1, 2 33 16 2, 4 39 17 1, 3 45 18 2, 3 5 19 1, 4 11 20 3, 4 17 21 4 P3 22 1, 2 23 23 2, 4 29 24 1, 3 35 25 2, 3 41 26 1, 4 47

[0078] For the embodiment shown in Table 3, transmit antennas 1 and 2 are used for short OFDM subband with index −26, transmit antennas 3 and 4 are used for short OFDM subband with index −25, and so on. The subband-antenna assignment is such that (1) each of the six possible antenna pairings with four transmit antennas is used for 8 data subbands, which are uniformly distributed across the 48 data subbands, and (2) the antenna pairing to subband assignment is such that different antennas are used for adjacent subbands, which may provide greater frequency and spatial diversity. The subband-antenna assignment scheme shown in Table 3 may also be used for the long OFDM symbol based on the mapping shown in equation (1) between the short and long OFDM symbol subband indices. For example, transmit antennas 1 and 2 may be used for long OFDM subbands with indices {−104, −103, −102, −101}, which are associated with short OFDM subband with index −26.

[0079] The processing at the transmitter and receiver for the diversity mode is described in detail in the aforementioned provisional U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 60/421,309.

[0080] 1. Physical Layer Processing

[0081]FIG. 8 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of an access point 510 x and two user terminals 520 x and 520 y within MIMO-OFDM system 500.

[0082] On the downlink, at access point 510 x, a transmit (TX) data processor 810 receives user data (i.e., information bits) from a data source 808 and control data and other data from a controller 830 and possibly a scheduler 834. The functions of the controller 830 and the scheduler 834 may be performed by a single processor or multiple processors. These various types of data may be sent on different transport channels. TX data processor 810 processes the different types of data based on one or more coding and modulation schemes and provides a stream of modulation symbols for each spatial channel to be used for data transmission. A TX spatial processor 820 receives one or more modulation symbol streams from TX data processor 810 and performs spatial processing on the modulation symbols to provide one stream of “transmit” symbols for each transmit antenna. The processing by processors 810 and 820 is described below.

[0083] Each modulator (MOD) 822 receives and processes a respective transmit symbol stream to provide a corresponding stream of OFDM symbols, which is further processed to provide a corresponding downlink signal. The downlink signals from N_(ap) modulators 822 a through 822 ap are then transmitted from N_(ap) antennas 824 a through 824 ap, respectively.

[0084] At each user terminal 520, one or multiple antennas 852 receive the transmitted downlink signals, and each antenna provides a receiver input signal to a respective demodulator (DEMOD) 854. Each demodulator 854 performs processing complementary to that performed at modulator 822 and provides “received” symbols. A receive (RX) spatial processor 860 then performs spatial processing on the received symbols from all demodulators 854 to provide “recovered” symbols, which are estimates of the modulation symbols sent by the access point.

[0085] An RX data processor 870 receives and demultiplexes the recovered symbols into their respective transport channels. The recovered symbols for each transport channel may be processed to provide decoded data for that transport channel. The decoded data for each transport channel may include recovered user data, control data, and so on, which may be provided to a data sink 872 for storage and/or a controller 880 for further processing.

[0086] The processing by access point 510 and terminal 520 for the downlink is described in further detail below and in the aforementioned provisional U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 60/421,309. The processing for the uplink may be the same or different from the processing for the downlink.

[0087] For the downlink, at each active user terminal 520, RX spatial processor 860 further estimates the downlink channel and provides channel state information (CSI). The CSI may include channel response estimates, received SNRs, and so on. RX data processor 870 may also provide the status of each packet/frame received on the downlink. A controller 880 receives the channel state information and the packet/frame status and determines the feedback information to be sent back to the access point. Controller 880 may further process the downlink channel estimates to obtain steering vectors, which are used to transmit a steered reference to the access point and for spatial processing of downlink data reception and uplink data transmission. The feedback information and uplink data are processed by a TX data processor 890, multiplexed with pilot data and spatially processed by a TX spatial processor 892 (if present), conditioned by one or more modulators 854, and transmitted via one or more antennas 852 back to the access point.

[0088] At access point 510, the transmitted uplink signal(s) are received by antennas 824, demodulated by demodulators 822, and processed by an RX spatial processor 840 and an RX data processor 842 in a complementary manner to that performed at the user terminal. The recovered feedback information is then provided to controller 830 and a scheduler 834. Scheduler 834 may use the feedback information to perform a number of functions such as (1) selecting a set of user terminals for data transmission on the downlink and uplink, (2) selecting the rates for the selected user terminals, and (3) assigning the available FCH/RCH resources to the selected terminals. Controller 830 may further use information (e.g., steering vectors) obtained from the uplink transmission for the processing of the downlink transmission, as described below.

[0089] Controllers 830 and 880 control the operation of various processing units at the access point and the user terminal, respectively. For example, controller 830 may determine the payload size of each data packet sent on the downlink and select OFDM symbols of the proper sizes for each downlink data packet. Correspondingly, controller 880 may determine the payload size of each data packet sent on the uplink and select OFDM symbols of the proper-sizes for each uplink data packet.

[0090] The OFDM symbol size selection may be performed for the downlink and uplink in various manners. In one embodiment, controller 830 and/or scheduler 834 determines the specific OFDM symbol sizes to use for both the downlink and uplink. In another embodiment, the controller at the transmitter determines the specific OFDM symbol sizes to use for transmission. The OFDM symbol size selection may then be provided to the receiver (e.g., via signaling on an overhead channel or signaling within the transmission itself). In yet another embodiment, the controller at the receiver determines the specific OFDM symbol sizes to use for transmission, and the OFDM symbol size selection is provided to the transmitter. The OFDM symbol size selection may be provided in various forms. For example, the specific OFDM symbol sizes to use for a given transmission may be derived from scheduling information for that transmission, which may include, for example, the transmission mode, spatial channels, rate, and time interval to use for the transmission. The scheduling information may be generated by controller 830 and/or scheduler 834, the controller at the transmitter, or the controller at the receiver.

[0091] For both the downlink and uplink, the specific combination of large and small OFDM symbols to use for each data packet is dependent on the packet payload size and the OFDM symbol capacity for each of the available OFDM symbol sizes. For each data packet, the controller may select as many large OFDM symbols as needed, and where appropriate select one or more additional small OFDM symbols for the data packet. This selection may be performed as follows. Assume that two OFDM symbol sizes are used (e.g., with 64 subbands and 256 subbands), the data carrying capacity of the small OFDM symbol is T_(SM)=48 modulation symbols, and the capacity of the large OFDM symbol is T_(L)=192 modulation symbols. The modulation and coding scheme allows M information bits to be sent per modulation symbol. The capacity of the small OFDM symbol is then C_(SM)=48·M information bits, and the capacity of the large OFDM symbol is C_(L)=192·M information bits. Let the data packet be N_(P) bits in length. The controller computes two intermediate values, l and m, as follows:

l=int [N _(P) /C _(L)], and   Eq (2)

m=ceiling [(N _(P) −l·C _(L))/C _(SM)]  Eq (3)

[0092] where the “int” operation on a provides the integer value of a, and the “ceiling” operation on b provides the next higher integer value for b. If m<4, then the number of large OFDM symbols to use for the data packet is N_(L)=l and the number of small OFDM symbols to use is N_(SM)=m. Otherwise, if m=4, then the number of large OFDM symbols to use for the data packet is N_(L)=l+1 and the number of small OFDM symbols to use is N_(SM)=0.

[0093] Controllers 830 and 880 provide the OFDM symbol size control signals to modulators/demodulators 822 and 854, respectively. At the access point, the OFDM symbol size control signal is used by the modulators to determine the size of the IFFT operations for downlink transmission, and is also used by the demodulators to determine the size of the FFT operations for uplink transmission. At the user terminal, the OFDM symbol size control signal is used by the demodulator(s) to determine the size of the FFT operations for downlink transmission, and is also used by the modulator(s) to determine the size of the IFFT operations for uplink transmission. Memory units 832 and 882 store data and program codes used by controllers 830 and 880, respectively.

[0094]FIG. 9A shows a block diagram of an embodiment of a transmitter unit 900 that may be used for the transmitter portion of the access point and the user terminal. Within TX data processor 810, a framing unit 910 “frames” the data for each packet to be transmitted on the FCH or RCH. The framing may be performed as illustrated in FIG. 7 to provide one or more PHY frames for each user data packet. The framing may be omitted for other transport channels. A scrambler 912 then scrambles the framed/unframed data for each transport channel to randomize the data.

[0095] An encoder 914 then codes the scrambled data in accordance with a selected coding scheme to provide code bits. The encoding increases the reliability of the data transmission. A repeat/puncture unit 916 then either repeats or punctures (i.e., deletes) some of the code bits to obtain the desired code rate for each PHY frame. In an exemplary embodiment, encoder 914 is a rate ½ constraint length 7, binary convolutional encoder. A code rate of ¼ may be obtained by repeating each code bit once. Code rates greater than ½ may be obtained by deleting some of the code bits from encoder 914.

[0096] An interleaver 918 then interleaves (i.e., reorders) the code bits from unit 916 based on a particular interleaving scheme. The interleaving provides time, frequency, and/or spatial diversity for the code bits. In an embodiment, each group of 48 consecutive code bits to be transmitted on a given spatial channel is interleaved across the 48 data subbands for the short OFDM symbol to provide frequency diversity. For the interleaving, the 48 code bits in each group may be assigned indices of 0 through 47. Each code bit index is associated with a respective short OFDM subband. Table 3 shows an exemplary code bit-subband assignment that may be used for the interleaving. All code bits with a particular index are transmitted on the associated subband. For example, the first code bit (with index 0) in each group is transmitted on short OFDM subband −26, the second code bit (with index 1) is transmitted on subband 1, and so on.

[0097] For the long OFDM symbol, each group of 192 consecutive code bits to be transmitted on a given spatial channel is interleaved across the 192 data subbands for the long OFDM symbol. In particular, the first subgroup of 48 code bits with indices of 0 through 47 may be transmitted on the 48 data subbands with indices l=4k, where k=±{1 . . . 6, 8 . . . 20, 22 . . . 26}, the second subgroup of 48 code bits with indices of 48 through 95 may be transmitted on the subbands with indices l=4k+1, the third subgroup of 48 code bits with indices of 96 through 143 may be transmitted on the subbands with indices l=4k+2, and the last subgroup of 48 code bits with indices of 144 through 191 may be transmitted on the subbands with indices l=4k+3. The same interleaving scheme is thus essentially used for both the short and long OFDM symbols.

[0098] A symbol mapping unit 920 then maps the interleaved data in accordance with one or more modulation schemes to provide modulation symbols. As shown in Table 1, the specific modulation scheme to use is dependent on the selected rate. The same modulation scheme is used for all data subbands in the diversity mode. A different modulation scheme may be used for each spatial channel in the spatial multiplexing mode. The symbol mapping may be achieved by (1) grouping sets of B bits to form B-bit binary values, where B≧1, and (2) mapping each B-bit binary value to a point in a signal constellation corresponding to the selected modulation scheme. Symbol mapping unit 920 provides a stream of modulation symbols to TX spatial processor 920.

[0099] An exemplary design for framing unit 910, scrambler 912, encoder 914, repeat/puncture unit 916, interleaver 918, and symbol mapping unit 920 is described in the aforementioned provisional U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 60/421,309. The scrambling, coding, and modulation may be performed based on control signals provided by controller 830.

[0100] TX spatial processor 820 receives the modulation symbols from TX data processor 810 and performs spatial processing for the spatial multiplexing, beam-steering, or diversity mode. The spatial processing is described in the aforementioned provisional U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 60/421,309. TX spatial processor 820 provides one stream of transmit symbols to each of N_(ap) modulators 822 a through 822 ap.

[0101]FIG. 9B shows a block diagram of an embodiment of a modulator 822 x, which may be used for each of modulators 822 a through 822 ap in FIG. 9A. Modulator 822 x includes an OFDM modulator 930 coupled to a transmitter unit (TMTR) 940. OFDM modulator 930 includes a variable-size IFFT unit 932 coupled to a cyclic prefix generator 934. IFFT unit 932 may be implemented with IFFT unit 400 shown in FIG. 4. IFFT unit 932 performs N-point IFFTs on the stream of transmit symbols provided to modulator 822 x, where N is variable and determined by the OFDM symbol size control signal provided by controller 830. For example, controller 830 may select the small OFDM symbol size for the BCH and FCCH segments (as shown in FIG. 6) and may select a combination of the small and large OFDM symbol sizes for the FCH segment, as described above. Cyclic prefix generator 934 appends a cyclic prefix to each transformed symbol from IFFT unit 932. The output of cyclic prefix generator 934 is a stream of OFDM symbols having varying sizes, as determined by controller 830. Transmitter unit 940 converts the stream of OFDM symbols into one or more analog signals, and further amplifies, filters, and frequency upconverts the analog signals to generate a downlink signal suitable for transmission from an associated antenna 824.

[0102] 2. Pilot

[0103] Various types of pilots may be transmitted to support various functions, such as timing and frequency acquisition, channel estimation, calibration, and so on. Table 4 lists four types of pilot and their short description. TABLE 4 Pilot Type Description Beacon Pilot A pilot transmitted from all transmit antennas and used for timing and frequency acquisition. MIMO Pilot A pilot transmitted from all transmit antennas with different orthogonal codes and used for channel estimation. Steered Reference A pilot transmitted on specific eigenmodes of a MIMO channel for a specific user terminal and used for channel estimation and possibly rate control. Carrier Pilot A pilot used for phase tracking of a carrier signal.

[0104] A MIMO pilot may be sent by a transmitter (e.g., an access point) with the short OFDM symbol and used by a receiver (e.g., a user terminal) to estimate the channel response matrices H(k), for subband indices kεK, where K=±{1 . . . 26}. The receiver may then perform singular value decomposition of the channel response matrix H(k) for each subband, as follows:

H(k)=U(k)Σ(k)V ^(H)(k), for kεK   Eq (4)

[0105] where U(k) is an (N_(T)×N_(R)) unitary matrix of left eigenvectors of H(k);

[0106] Σ(k) is an (N_(R)×N_(T)) diagonal matrix of singular values of H(k);

[0107] V(k) is an (N_(T)×N_(T)) unitary matrix of right eigenvectors of H(k); and

[0108] “^(H)” denotes the conjugate transpose, N_(T) denotes the number of transmit antennas, and N_(R) denotes the number of receive antennas.

[0109] A unitary matrix M is characterized by the property M^(H)M=I, where I is the identity matrix. The singular values in each diagonal matrix Σ(k) may be ordered from largest to smallest, and the columns in the matrices U(k) and V(k) may be ordered correspondingly.

[0110] A “wideband” eigenmode may be defined as the set of same-order eigenmodes of all subbands after the ordering. Thus, wideband eigenmode m includes eigenmode m of all subbands. Each wideband eigenmode is associated with a respective set of eigenvectors for all of the subbands. The “principal” wideband eigenmode is the one associated with the largest singular value in each matrix Σ(k) after the ordering.

[0111] If the same frequency band is used for both the downlink and uplink, then the channel response matrix for one link is the transpose of the channel response matrix for the other link. Calibration may be performed to account for differences in the frequency responses of the transmit/receive chains at the access point and user terminal. A steered reference may be sent by a transmitter and used by a receiver to estimate the eigenvectors that may be used for spatial processing for data reception and transmission.

[0112] A steered reference may be transmitted for wideband eigenmode m by a transmitter (e.g., a user terminal), as follows:

x _(m)(k)=v _(m)(k)·p(k), for kεK   Eq (5)

[0113] where x_(m)(k) is an (N_(T×)1) transmit vector for subband k of wideband eigenmode m;

[0114] v_(m)(k) is the steering vector for subband k of wideband eigenmode m (i.e., the m-th column of the matrix V(k); and

[0115] p(k) is the pilot symbol for subband k.

[0116] The vector X_(m)(k) includes N_(T) transmit symbols to be sent from the N_(T) transmit antennas for subband k.

[0117] The received steered reference at a receiver (e.g., an access point) may be expressed as: $\begin{matrix} {\begin{matrix} {{{\underset{\_}{r}}_{m}(k)} = {{{\underset{\_}{H}(k)}{{\underset{\_}{x}}_{m}(k)}} + {\underset{\_}{n}(k)}}} \\ {= {{{{\underset{\_}{u}}_{m}(k)}{\sigma_{m}(k)}{p(k)}} + {\underset{\_}{n}(k)}}} \end{matrix},{{{for}\quad k} \in {K.}}} & {{Eq}\quad (6)} \end{matrix}$

[0118] where r_(m)(k) is a received vector for subband k of wideband eigenmode m;

[0119] u_(m)(k) is the steering vector for subband k of wideband eigenmode m (i.e., the m-th column of the matrix U(k); and

[0120] σ_(m)(k) is the singular value for subband k of wideband eigenmode m; and

[0121] n(k) is the noise.

[0122] As shown in equation (6), at the receiver, the received steered reference (in the absence of noise) is approximately u_(m)(k)σ_(m)(k)p(k). The receiver can thus obtain estimates of u_(m)(k) and σ_(m)(k) for subband k based on the steered reference received on that subband, as described in the aforementioned provisional U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 60/421,309.

[0123] The steered reference is sent for one wideband eigenmode in each OFDM symbol period (without subband multiplexing), and may in turn be used to obtain an estimate of one eigenvector u_(m)(k) for each subband of that wideband eigenmode. Since estimates of multiple eigenvectors for the unitary matrix U(k) are obtained over different OFDM symbol periods, and due to noise and other sources of degradation in the wireless channel, the estimated eigenvectors for the unitary matrix (which are individually derived) are not likely to be orthogonal to one another. To improve performance, the N_(C) estimated eigenvectors u_(m)(k) of each unitary matrix U(k) may be forced to be orthogonal to each other using QR factorization or some other orthogonalization technique, as described in the aforementioned provisional U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 60/438,601.

[0124] The steered reference may be sent using the short OFDM symbol. The receiver is able to process the received steered reference to obtain a steering vector for each short OFDM subband that was used for steered reference transmission. For the above exemplary design, each short OFDM subband is associated with four long OFDM subbands. If the steered reference is sent using the short OFDM symbol, then the steering vectors for the long OFDM subbands may be obtained in various manners.

[0125] In one embodiment, the steering vector obtained for short OFDM subband k is used for long OFDM subbands l=4k through l=4k+3. This embodiment provides good performance for low to moderate SNRs. For high SNRs, some degradation is observed when the coherence bandwidth of the channel is small. The coherence bandwidth is the bandwidth over which the channel is essentially constant or flat.

[0126] In another embodiment, the steering vectors u_(m)(k) obtained for the short OFDM subbands are interpolated to obtain the steering vectors u_(m)(f) for the long OFDM subbands. The interpolation may be performed in a manner such that the steering vectors u_(m)(l) do not exhibit substantially more variability from subband to subband than the underlying channel response matrix H(k). One source of variability is phase ambiguity in the left and right eigenvectors of H(k), which results from the fact that the left and right eigenvectors of H(k) are unique up to a unit length complex constant. In particular, for any pair of unit length vectors v_(m)(k) and u_(m)(k) that satisfy the following equation:

H(k)v _(m)(k)=u _(m)(k)σ_(m)(k),   Eq (7)

[0127] any other pair of unit length vectors e^(jφ)v_(m)(k) and e^(jφ)u_(m)(k) also satisfy the equation.

[0128] This phase ambiguity may be avoided by taking some precautions in the computation of the singular value decomposition of H(k). This may be achieved by constraining the solution to the singular value decomposition so that the first element in each column of V(k) is non-negative. This constraint eliminates arbitrary phase rotations from subband to subband when the variations in the eigenvectors are otherwise smooth and the magnitude of the leading element of the eigenvector is not close to zero. This constraint may be enforced by post-multiplying a diagonal matrix R(k) with each of the unitary matrices U(k) and V(k), which may be obtained in the normal manner and may contain arbitrary phase rotations. The diagonal elements ρ_(i)(k) of the matrix R(k) may be expressed as:

ρ_(i)(k)=e ^(−arg(v) ^(_(1,i)) ^((k))),   Eq (8)

[0129] where v_(1,i)(k) is the first element of the i-th column of V(k), and ${\arg \left( {v_{1,i}(k)} \right)} = {{\arctan \left( \frac{{Re}\left\{ {v_{1,i}(k)} \right\}}{{Im}\left\{ {v_{1,i}(k)} \right\}} \right)}.}$

[0130] The constrained eigenvectors in R(k)V(k) may then be used for the steered reference, as shown in equation (5). At the receiver, the received vector r_(m)(k) may be processed to obtain estimates of u_(m)(k) and σ_(m)(k), which may be interpolated to obtain estimates of u_(m)(l) and σ_(m)(l), respectively.

[0131] The use of the short OFDM symbol for the MIMO pilot and steered reference reduces the processing load associated with singular value decomposition of the channel response matrices H(k). Moreover, it can be shown that interpolation, with the constraint described above to avoid arbitrary phase rotation from subband to subband, can reduce the amount of degradation in performance due to interpolation of the steering vectors based on steered reference transmission on fewer than all subbands used for data transmission.

[0132] The carrier pilot may be transmitted by the access point and used by the user terminals for phase tracking of a carrier signal. For a short OFDM symbol, the carrier pilot may be transmitted on four short OFDM subbands with indices ±{7, 21}, as shown in Table 3. For a long OFDM symbol, the carrier pilot may be transmitted on the 16 corresponding long OFDM subbands with indices ±{28+i, 84+i}, for i=0, 1, 2, 3. Alternatively, the carrier pilot may be transmitted on four long OFDM subbands with indices ±{28, 24}, in which case the other 12 long OFDM subbands may be used for data transmission or some other purpose.

[0133] The various types of pilots and their processing at the transmitter and receiver are described in detail in the aforementioned provisional U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 60/421,309.

[0134] For simplicity, the techniques for using of OFDM symbols of different sizes have been described for the downlink. These techniques may also be used for the uplink. A fixed OFDM symbol size may be used for some uplink transmissions (e.g., messages sent on the RACH) and OFDM symbols of different sizes may be used for other uplink transmissions (e.g., data packets sent on the RCH). The specific combination of large and small OFDM symbols to use for each uplink data packet may be depending on the packet payload size and may be determined by controller 880 (e.g., based on scheduling information generated by controller 880 or provided by controller 830 and/or scheduler 834, as described above).

[0135] The techniques described herein for using OFDM symbols of different sizes in OFDM systems may be implemented by various means. For example, these techniques may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the elements used to implement any one or a combination of the techniques may be implemented within one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described herein, or a combination thereof.

[0136] For a software implementation, the techniques described herein may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. The software codes may be stored in a memory unit (e.g., memory units 832 and 882 in FIG. 8) and executed by a processor (e.g., controllers 830 and 880). The memory unit may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor, in which case it can be communicatively coupled to the processor via various means as is known in the art.

[0137] Headings are included herein for reference and to aid in locating certain sections. These headings are not intended to limit the scope of the concepts described therein under, and these concepts may have applicability in other sections throughout the entire specification.

[0138] The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of transmitting data in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, comprising: transmitting a first block of data in a first OFDM symbol of a first size; and transmitting a second block of data in a second OFDM symbol of a second size that is different from the first size.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first block of data comprises control data and the second block of data comprises user data.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first size is selected based on an expected payload size for the control data and the second size is selected based on an expected payload size for the user data.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second blocks of data are for a data packet.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first block of data is intended for multiple receivers and the second block of data is intended for a single receiver.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting a pilot in a third OFDM symbol.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the pilot is a steered reference.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein each pair of modulation symbols for the second OFDM symbol is concurrently transmitted on a pair of subbands from two antennas.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein cyclic prefixes for the first and second OFDM symbols have the same length.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein cyclic prefixes for the first and second OFDM symbols have different lengths.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the second block of data is coded to obtain an error detection value that is transmitted in the second OFDM symbol.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second blocks of data are interleaved with the same interleaving scheme.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second sizes are related by a power of two.
 14. An apparatus in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, comprising: means for transmitting a first block of data in a first OFDM symbol of a first size; and means for transmitting a second block of data in a second OFDM symbol of a second size that is different from the first size.
 15. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising: means for transmitting a pilot in a third OFDM symbol of the first size.
 16. A transmitter unit in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, comprising: a transmit (TX) data processor operative to process a first block of data to obtain a first set of modulation symbols and to process a second block of data to obtain a second set of modulation symbols; and a modulator operative to process the first set of modulation symbols to obtain a first OFDM symbol of a first size and to process the second set of modulation symbols to obtain a second OFDM symbol of a second size that is different from the first size.
 17. The transmitter unit of claim 16, wherein the modulator is further operative to process a third set of modulation symbols for a pilot to obtain a third OFDM symbol for the pilot.
 18. A method of transmitting data in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, comprising: transmitting control data in a first time segment with a first OFDM symbol of a first size; and transmitting user data in a second time segment with a second OFDM symbol of a second size that is different from the first size.
 19. The method of claim 18, further comprising: transmitting user data in the second time segment with a third OFDM symbol of a third size that is different from the second size.
 20. The method of claim 18, further comprising: transmitting a pilot in a third time segment with a third OFDM symbol.
 21. The method of claim 18, wherein the first and second sizes are fixed.
 22. The method of claim 18, wherein the first and second sizes are configurable.
 23. A method of receiving data in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, comprising: receiving a first OFDM symbol of a first size for a first block of data; and receiving a second OFDM symbol of a second size for a second block of data, the second size being different from the first size.
 24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first block of data comprises control data and the second block of data comprises user data.
 25. The method of claim 23, wherein the first and second blocks of data are for a data packet.
 26. The method of claim 23, further comprising: receiving a third OFDM symbol for a pilot.
 27. The method of claim 26, further comprising: processing the third OFDM symbol to obtain a channel estimate for each of a plurality of subbands.
 28. The method of claim 27, further comprising: interpolating channel estimates for the plurality of subbands to obtain a channel estimate for an additional subband not among the plurality of subbands.
 29. An apparatus in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, comprising: means for receiving a first OFDM symbol of a first size for a first block of data; and means for receiving a second OFDM symbol of a second size for a second block of data, the second size being different from the first size.
 30. The apparatus of claim 29, further comprising: means for receiving a third OFDM symbol for a pilot; and means for processing the third OFDM symbol to obtain a channel estimate for each of a plurality of subbands.
 31. The apparatus of claim 30, comprising: means for interpolating channel estimates for the plurality of subbands to obtain a channel estimate for an additional subband not among the plurality of subbands.
 32. A receiver unit in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, comprising: a demodulator operative to process a first OFDM symbol of a first size to obtain a first set of received modulation symbols and to process a second OFDM symbol of a second size to obtain a second set of received modulation symbols, wherein the second size is different from the first size; and a receive (RX) data processor operative to process the first set of received modulation symbols to obtain a first block of data and to process the second set of received modulation symbols to obtain a second block of data.
 33. The receiver unit of claim 32, wherein the demodulator is further operative to process a third OFDM symbol for a pilot to provide a channel estimate for each of a plurality of subbands.
 34. The receiver unit of claim 33, further comprising: a controller operative to interpolate channel estimates for the plurality of subbands to obtain a channel estimate for an additional subband not among the plurality of subbands.
 35. A method of processing a pilot in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, comprising: receiving a first set of OFDM symbols from a set of antennas for the pilot; processing the first set of OFDM symbols to obtain a channel response matrix for each of a plurality of subbands; and decomposing the channel response matrix for each of the plurality of subbands to obtain a unitary matrix of eigenvectors for the channel response matrix, wherein the decomposition is performed in a manner to avoid arbitrary phase rotations from subband to subband.
 36. The method of claim 35, wherein the arbitrary phase rotations from subband to subband are avoided by constraining first element in each column of the unitary matrix to be a non-negative value.
 37. The method of claim 36, further comprising: generating a steered reference based on a particular column of the unitary matrix for each of the plurality of subbands; and transmitting a second set of OFDM symbols from the set of antennas for the steered reference.
 38. A method of processing a steered reference in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, comprising: receiving a set of OFDM symbols from a set of antennas for the steered reference; processing the set of OFDM symbols to obtain a steering vector for each of a plurality of subbands; and interpolating steering vectors for the plurality of subbands to obtain a steering vector for an additional subband not among the plurality of subbands.
 39. A method of transmitting a data unit having a data unit size in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, the method comprising: selecting a first OFDM symbol size from a set of OFDM symbol sizes, wherein the set of OFDM symbol sizes comprises a large OFDM symbol size and a small OFDM symbol size that is smaller than the large OFDM symbol size; and transmitting a first portion of the data unit in an OFDM symbol having the first OFDM symbol size.
 40. The method of claim 39 wherein the selecting a first OFDM symbol size is based on the data unit size.
 41. The method of claim 39 wherein the data unit has a data unit type, and wherein the selecting a first OFDM symbol size is based on the data unit type.
 42. The method of claim 39 further comprising: selecting a second OFDM symbol size from the set of OFDM symbol sizes; and transmitting a second portion of the data unit in a second OFDM symbol having the second OFDM symbol size.
 43. The method of claim 42, wherein the first OFDM symbol size is equal to the second OFDM symbol size.
 44. The method of claim 42, wherein the first OFDM symbol size is larger than the second OFDM symbol size.
 45. An apparatus in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, comprising means for selecting a first OFDM symbol size from a set of OFDM symbol sizes, wherein the set of OFDM symbol sizes comprises a large OFDM symbol size and a small OFDM symbol size that is smaller than the large OFDM symbol size; and means for transmitting a first portion of a data unit in an OFDM symbol having the first OFDM symbol size.
 46. The apparatus of claim 45, further comprising: means for selecting a second OFDM symbol size from the set of OFDM symbol sizes; and means for transmitting a second portion of the data unit in a second OFDM symbol having the second OFDM symbol size.
 47. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the first OFDM symbol size is selected based on a data unit size of the data unit.
 48. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the first OFDM symbol size is selected based on a data unit type of the data unit.
 49. A transmitter unit in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, comprising: a controller operative to select a first OFDM symbol size from a set of OFDM symbol sizes, wherein the set of OFDM symbol sizes comprises a large OFDM symbol size and a small OFDM symbol size that is smaller than the large OFDM symbol size; and a modulator operative to process a first portion of a data unit to obtain an OFDM symbol having the first OFDM symbol size.
 50. The transmitter of claim 49, wherein the controller is further operative to select a second OFDM symbol size from the set of OFDM symbol sizes, and wherein the modulator is further operative to process a second portion of the data unit to obtain a second OFDM symbol having the second OFDM symbol size. 